Conflict has always been one of the greatest driving forces for humanity. Regardless of whether the fighting is over land, resources, or even ideals, the desire to win pushes combatants to innovate in order to gain the upper hand. Swords giving way to muskets, carriers replacing battleships, the invention of the nuclear bomb, the list of technologies spawned by conflict goes on and on. Humanity became rather adept at killing itself.

And yet nothing prepared humanity for the arrival of the Invaders.

The true name of the aliens has remained a mystery ever since their cylindrical spacecraft was accidentally spotted approaching Earth by the James Webb Space Telescope in January of 2023. All across the world attempts were made to establish first contact, but to no avail. By the time the aliens arrived above Earth on January 26th they had not returned even a single acknowledgement that they had received humanity’s messages. Governments across the globe grew anxious and mobilized strategic military assets as the alien craft split into two and approached both the North and South poles.

The research outposts at the poles livestreamed the descent of the alien crafts, thinking it was a historic moment worthy of being captured. Each of the two black cylinders were larger than Manhattan Island, meaning the outposts were utterly dwarfed in comparison. The smooth, vantablack surface of the spacecraft absorbed all attempts at sensor probing as they set down and filled the horizon with their might.

The world watched in anticipation as the curved exterior of the alien cylinders receded. Then all hell broke loose. A myriad of weaponry far beyond human technology eviscerated the outposts’ scientists and other support personnel as well as the settlements themselves. Lasers sliced people into tiny chunks while plasma globules evaporated whatever they touched. Neither man nor structure escaped destruction.

No warning or manifesto was ever transmitted. The Invaders acted with simple violence without any discernible cause or provocation. The last images shown to humanity prior to the livestreams being cut off were of dagger-shaped aircraft launching from each half of the mothership.

What followed was the single greatest collaborative operation in human history. Aircraft of all make, model, and nationality were scrambled to intercept the invading alien forces before they could leave the Arctic/Antarctica. Ballistic missiles, both traditional and nuclear, were primed and set to wait for targets to be painted. The world’s fate lay in the hands of the brave pilots who were flying into certain doom.

For every Invader air unit shot down the Invaders blew five human ones out of the sky. Over 80% of humanity’s forces were decimated by alien craft that were far faster and more mobile than even the latest-generation of fighters. To make matters worse, all of the nuclear missiles were shot down before they found their marks. But where technology failed, humanity used numbers to win the day. The Invaders’ advance was halted before they reached civilization.

Great efforts were made to salvage every single scrap of alien technology possible from the wreckages. That’s when humanity did what it does best: Figure out how to reverse engineer the cornucopia of technologies to fight back and kill better. Soon even ancient aircraft like the F-14 were retrofitted and able to take on Invaders in a dogfight. But the true prize of the research efforts was the development of the Air-Core system.

The Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD) was the first outfit to achieve a breakthrough in understanding how the cores of alien aircraft functioned. By supplying inverse reactive current through a base plate of pre-famulated decalithium, power was generated by the modial interaction of magneto-reluctance and capacitive diractance. This new form of non-linear, lotus-o-delta type reactor could then be synchronized with a panerdermic solid-state drive containing blueprints and combat data to create the basework for a new kind of aircraft: The Air-Core.

Technobabble aside, Air-Cores were a simple concept. Similar to mecha found in multiple forms of entertainment, Air-Cores were anthropomorphizations of real-life aircraft, ranging in size from 1.5 to 2.5 times the size of an average human. Their bodies consisted of nanities with non-Newtonian properties, allowing them to self-repair by breaking down and repurposing any scrap metal or parts fed to them. By this same process, an Air-Core could assimilate new weaponry, data, and technologies under the right circumstances. An Air-Core was also able to produce a high number of ammunition for whatever weapons it possessed data on.

This meant that even a single Air-Core was a force multiplier. Humanity was able to use these new Air-Core units to establish meaningful defensive lines across the globe. The Invaders continually tested and probed these lines as they expanded their corrupting influence outwards from the poles. Ultimately, each side found themselves in a hot stalemate that persisted to the current day.

It’s been over thirty years since the aliens arrived. Humanity is no closer to repelling the Invaders than they are to even discovering what the aliens are called. All attempts at diplomacy have failed. Experts across the world have said we have maybe until the end of the century at best before we’re wiped out unless something drastic changes.

Imagine my surprise when such a drastic change landed right in my lap.